Korea Railroad Corporation (Korail) said on the 16th that it is investigating the exact cause of an incident in which sparks occurred while running inside the KTX high-speed train.
An incident occurred around 3:25 p.m. on the 15th when sparks flew from the overhead shelf of a KTX train departing from Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, heading to Seoul. At the time, the train was operating near Daejeon Station.
When sparks occurred along with black smoke near the fluorescent light on the upper part of car 6 of the KTX, the crew moved passengers to another car and used a fire extinguisher to prevent further damage. About 390 passengers were on board at that time. Korail confirmed that there was no abnormality after inspecting the train at Daejeon Station.
Safety inspection staff also boarded the train to observe operations from Daejeon Station to Osong Station. Korail noted that they did not find any abnormalities during this process, but for safety reasons, passengers were transferred to another train at Osong Station. As a result, four other high-speed trains were delayed by about 10 to 20 minutes.
A Korail official said, "It is reported that an issue occurred with the fluorescent light component above the train's overhead shelf, and we are investigating the exact cause."